A pensioner has spoken of his shock after a pair of slippers arrived from Amazon with a swastika pattern on their soles.

Sam Purdie was outraged to find the Nazi symbol repeated on the bottoms of his new £15 footwear.

The retired engineer said the navy slippers looked "perfectly respectable" online, but he was "very shocked" when they arrived on his doorstep.

He said: "I ordered a pair of slippers which on first examination looked good, but when they arrived I realised they had swastikas all over the soles.

"You could absolutely notice the pattern right away. They looked good on Amazon, but they were of course very careful not to show you the soles of the slippers."

The 81-year-old, from Perth, said he tried to warn other customers, but his review of the Jo & Joe brand slip-ons was censored by the retailer.

He explained: "They responded saying I had been abusive in my review. But it's an automated response, I think the fact I had used the word swastika upset them."

The pensioner hopes Amazon will now remove the items from sale.

"I am not Jewish, but I am old enough to have very unpleasant memories of swastikas," he said.

A spokeswoman for Burnley-based suppliers LJ&R Footwear said: "Any resemblance to the sign in question is purely coincidental. It is a honeycomb maze pattern."

In January a shoe company in the US apologised and recalled a boot after a viral photo showed it left behind tiny swastika prints.

Conal International Trading Co, which manufactures the Polar Fox boot, said it was "no way intentional" and an "obvious mistake" made by manufacturers in China.